INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM – IT IS TIME TO TAKE OFF THE GLOVES AND FIGHT

Michael A. Walsh, an American author and media critic, born 1949, on March 28, 2016 commented on his PJ Media blog on the need to take the war on terrorism seriously. Excerpts below:

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If you’ve had it with teddy bears and candles, and are culturally predisposed to agree with the late Air Force General Curtis LeMay when he said, “If you kill enough of them, they stop fighting,” read this:

Je suis fed up with the politically correct methods and means of counterterrorism pursued by America and its Western allies. There’s so much of that stupidity controlling what we do, with so many bad policies imposed by President Obama and others of his ilk, it’s no wonder the terrorists are winning.

Every time another mass murder occurs, the media’s coverage focuses on the memorials — piles of flowers, rows of candles and hand-drawn signs — and the calls for “unity” and pledges of resolve by national leaders. But all the memorials are totally meaningless. They are merely a stage for politicians to act on, professing emotion, proclaiming unity, and calling for everyone to just keep calm and carry on. Nothing else results from them.

President Obama began military action against ISIS in June 2014. Since then ISIS has grown despite the occasional killing of some ISIS leader accomplished by good intelligence work and a drone strike. Not only does ISIS control big chunks of Iraq and Syria, it now controls key portions of Libya as well. ISIS-trained terrorists — and those radicals who don’t bother to travel to ISIS-held lands for training — are a growing menace to us all.

Obama’s strategy and tactics were intended, as he said, to degrade and eventually destroy ISIS. They have failed. Obama [recently] said that defeating ISIS remained his number one priority. But, he added, there will be no change in strategy.

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What is the root cause of this politically correct cowardice? For that’s what it is. You can call it what you’d like, but the fact is that our government — and those of our supposedly-strong allies in Europe — are too fearful of offending Muslims to do what is necessary…
We have been at war with terrorist networks for fifteen years without dealing decisively with them.

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All our tools of war need to be employed against the terrorist networks and the nations that support them. That’s easy to say but hard to do. Allies can be helpful, but we can’t be restrained by their lack of courage and assent.

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End the politically correct stupidity. Let’s get on with it.

Comment: For many years extreme leftists (mostly academics) have attacked General LeMay. In 2009 the other side of the story was told by Warren Kozak. He is the author of a LEMAY: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay (Regnery Publishing, Inc.; ISBN: 1596985690 354 pages).

After Pearl Harbor the American leadership asked the military to commit acts of hard retaliation against Japan. In 1945 then 38-year-old General Curtis LeMay ordered the deaths of more civilians than any other man in U.S. history.

He sent 346 huge B-29 bombers with napalm to attack the Japanese capital. Around 16 square miles of the capital city were burnt, two million people had no homes, and 100,000 Japanese were killed. In all LeMay ordered attacks on over 60 cities in Japan. Around 350, 000 people lost their lives. The media in the United States thought it was a great achievement.

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When at peace a country can deliberate the balance between securty and civil liberties. A nation at war, as presently against ISIL must take firm military action. At the time of publication of the Le May book Regnery provided the following information:

General Curtis LeMay is [a most famous] general of the 20th century. Despite playing a major role in many important military events of the last century—from defeating Japan without a costly land invasion to being on the Joint Chiefs during the Cuban Missile Crisis—historians have been content to paint LeMay as a crude, trigger-happy, cigar-chomping general…

However, in LEMAY, Kozak reveals the [general] that only those close to him knew—a commander who was gruff yet compassionate, brilliant, and accomplished. In LEMAY, you’ll learn:

• How LeMay devised the plan to use incendiary bombs over Japan that killed hundreds of thousands but saved millions from an impending ground invasion

• How he turned the Strategic Air Command from a dismal failure into the deadliest fighting force in history

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Giving an unprecedented glimpse into the might and mind of perhaps the most controversial general in our nation’s history, Kozak shows why today, more than ever, America needs another man like Curtis LeMay.